In a computing environment, a data storage and management system can provide access to information stored on one or a plurality of storage devices networked to the system. Storage devices may comprise disk drives, a plurality of which can be organized as disk arrays. Disks may describe a magnetic media storage unit, and may be synonymous with a hard disk drive, a direct access storage device, solid state drive, or other similar media used for persistent data storage. Data can be organized into volumes that are comprised on disk drives of one or more storage devices.
A plurality of storage system may be interconnected to provide a distributed storage system, for example, designed to mitigate problems with data access speed and availability. Such a clustered system distributes volumes serviced by a particular storage system to the plurality of storage systems in the cluster. This, in-turn, distributes data access requests among the respective storage systems in the cluster, thereby distributing a processing load that may accompany said requests.
Storage systems, including clustered storage systems, can be configured to accommodate a plurality of clients, in a client/server model, for data access and management. For example, a client may comprise an application running on a computer that connects to the storage system (or cluster) over a network. Respective clients can typically request services from the storage system by issuing packet-based, protocol requests to the system over the network. In-turn, the storage system may return requested data, or perform some data management request.
Storage of information on disk drives or disk arrays can be implemented as a file-system (volumes) that may span a portion of a disk, a cluster of disks, or portions of disks, for example. A data-storage volume typically defines an overall logical arrangement of file storage on disk space in the storage system. Volumes are configured in formats that may be associated with particular storage systems. For example, where one storage system may utilize a certain format for their volumes, another storage system may utilize a different format for their volumes.
Respective volume formats typically comprise features that provide functionality to the volumes, such as providing an ability for volumes to form clusters. As new features are developed, for example, newer versions of volume formats may become available. However, it may be desirable to merely develop a single common format for two or more different formats, instead of continuing to develop new (and often divergent) versions for two or more formats. A single common format simplifies operations at least by mitigating a need to track and learn various formats. Therefore, it may be desirable to develop a common volume format and be able to convert different formats into a single common format.
Currently, converting a volume from a first format to a second format may require that an administrator copy all the data on the volume to a new volume in the second format. This type of data copying can be very time consuming and resource intensive, particularly if there are large amounts of data in respective volumes, such as large enterprise data storage systems. Further, during copying the volume is typically inaccessible to requests, and if the copying takes a long time, enterprises that require time sensitive access to data may be reluctant to perform such a conversion.